Guardio review 2024

Guardio may be a newcomer in the antivirus scene, but it’s already amassed over 1 million users. This Chromium-based browser extension promises to block malicious websites and prevent malware downloads as you encounter them. But is Guardio the proactive solution you need to enhance your security?

Guardio alerts you about dangerous sites and provides manual security scans, all for free. Premium users get even more features; with an active subscription, the software blocks dangerous sites, prevents malware downloads, scans your emails for suspicious files, and monitors the web for identity and data leaks.

However, Guardio is limited by design, as it can’t scan your local files or prevent malware from sources other than your web browser. Moreover, it’s not as extensive a security solution as other antivirus packages, which often come with a VPN, parental controls, and more features.

In this Guardio review, I investigate Guardio’s security claims and evaluate how effective its features are at keeping you and your data safe online.

Rating:	3.5 ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Overall rank:	#23 out of #26
Price:	From $9.99/month
Free version:	Yes
Platforms:	Windows, macOS (Chromium browsers only), Android, iOS
Current deal:	Get Guardio, starting at $9.99/month

Guardio antivirus pros and cons

Visit Guardio to learn more about the features

What is Guardio?

Guardio is a browser extension that aims to protect both your browsing activity and your identity. It accomplishes this by warning you in real time about suspicious websites and downloads and alerting you as soon as your sensitive information is leaked on the dark web.

Guardio is a freemium service, which means you can get the basic package for free and upgrade later on if you wish. The free version includes features like manual scans of your installed browser extensions and warnings when you encounter phishing sites. The free version of Guardio only supports one device at a time.

To enjoy Guardio’s full set of features, you’ll need to upgrade your subscription (from $9.99/month). Doing so will grant you features like malicious site blocking, infected downloads blocking, email and text message filtering, data breach monitoring, and more. With a paid Guardio subscription, you can protect up to 5 devices at a time.

Since Guardio is a browser extension and not a fully-fledged computer program, it can’t scan your device’s local files or installed programs. It also can’t prevent malware from sources other than your browser. For instance, if you plug an infected USB thumb drive into your computer, then there’s nothing Guardio can do to prevent your device from infection.

Is Guardio safe?

Yes, Guardio’s browser extension itself is safe to install and is a featured extension on the Google Chrome Web Store. It’s also available for Chromium browsers like Brave, Opera, Microsoft Edge, and more. Guardio’s mobile app can be installed from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

However, some users report on Reddit and Trustpilot that they ran into trouble while trying to cancel Guardio Premium, sharing that they still got billed on their credit cards despite canceling their subscriptions.

It’s also important to note that, as of writing, Guardio has not been tested by independent organizations like AV-TEST or AV-Comparatives. While Guardio’s software performs as expected and is safe to install on your devices, I still hope to see it evaluated to further strengthen its claims.

How much does Guardio cost?

Guardio offers three plans: Basic, Premium, and Business. All three plans, including Guardio Basic, which is free, are meant to send you dangerous site alerts and perform a manual system scan. Users also get to use a dedicated app for iOS and Android.

Guardio Premium costs $9.99/month (annual subscription). This plan is a step up from the free version. The paid subscription includes dangerous site blocks, malicious email security, identity & data leak monitoring, as well as 24/7 support.

Guardio also has a Business tier that offers everything in the Premium plan, plus user management and service-level agreements. This plan costs $14.99/month.

You can also try Guardio for free thanks to its 7-day free trial. This lets you try the service’s full set of features without committing to a paid plan right away. Note that you’ll still need to provide credit card details when availing of the free trial.

Here’s a quick summary of Guardio plans and what’s included:

	Basic	Premium	Business
Price	Free	$9.99/month	$14.99/person/month
Device coverage	1 device	5 devices	5 devices
Manual security scans	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Harmful site blocking	❌ No	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Dangerous download blocks	❌ No	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Suspicious site alerts	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Webcam and microphone alerts	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Automatic malicious extension removal	❌ No	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Malicious extension pre-install alerts	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Unwanted notification cleanup	❌ No	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Identity monitoring	❌ No	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Search hijacking detection	❌ No	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Account protection (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X)	❌ No	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Email security	❌ No	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Dark web monitoring	❌ No	✅ Yes	✅ Yes

Check Guardio pricing

The free Guardio version doesn’t offer as much in the way of features, but its dangerous site alerts can at least warn you about phishing sites.

Unfortunately, even at its most expensive, Guardio doesn’t offer as many features as other antivirus programs. For example, the popular Norton 360 Deluxe, offers a firewall, password manager, VPN, parental controls, webcam protection, and more.

Here’s how Guardio’s plans compare to other popular antivirus packages:

Brand	Monthly pricing	Annual pricing
Guardio	$14.99/month	$9.99/month
Norton	–	$29.99/year
TotalAV	–	$19.00year
Bitdefender	–	$19.99/year
Malwarebytes	–	$44.99/year

Guardio offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on purchases. According to the provider, users are eligible for a full refund within 30 days from the initial charge. You can also cancel your subscription during the first 7 days without getting billed. You can cancel via the user dashboard.

Can I get Guardio for free?

Yes, you can use Guardio for free. Not only does it have a free version, but it also has a 7-day free trial of the Premium plan and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

While I find the free version of Guardio limited, it’s a nice add-on that increases your security at zero cost. Please note that you can protect only one device at a time with the free plan.

Guardio 7-day free trial allows you to enjoy all the benefits of the Premium plan, which includes protecting up to 5 devices.

Guardio security features

Are Guardio’s security features enough to protect you on the web? I examined and evaluated the Premium plan benefits to see how well the tool performs in terms of everything from browsing protection to text message filtering.

• Browsing protection
• Malicious extension detection
• Unwanted notification cleanup
• Identity monitoring
• Search hijacking correction
• Email security
• Account protection
• Text message filtering

Browsing protection

Guardio’s browser-based protection has a four-pronged approach to ensure that every page you visit and every file you download is evaluated.

First, Guardio blocks suspicious websites, providing anti-phishing protection from pages that want to steal your information. It also blocks potentially dangerous downloads, which prevents your device from infection. Guardio also alerts you when a website you visit is suspicious or tries to access your microphone or camera.

You can view all the websites blocked by Guardio in the Browsing Activity section. You can also whitelist trusted websites in case Guardio incorrectly flags them as dangerous.

Guardio also offers mobile Browsing Protection, which you can access using the Guardio mobile app. It functions similarly to the desktop version.

I tested Guardio’s website blocking capability by visiting malicious sites and observing how the extension reacts. Based on my tests, Guardio was able to block 7 out of 10 infected websites obtained from the URLhaus database, giving it a 70% success rate at blocking malicious sites.

I also checked how well Guardio can block malicious downloads. For this test, I downloaded 10 malicious files, of which Guardio was able to block six. This gives it a 60% success rate at blocking malicious downloads.

Interestingly, Guardio would sometimes download the harmful file first and then quickly block the website itself. I found this strange, as its behavior should be the opposite: first blocking the site and then preventing the file from downloading completely.

Overall, I found Guardio’s performance in this aspect to be disappointing. Of course, both tests above are based only on my experience and may not be indicative of other users’ experience with the app.

Malicious extension detection

When you enable Real-Time Protection, Guardio automatically detects and removes malicious browser extensions.

If you’re on the free version, you need to manually uninstall any dangerous extensions as automatic removal is a premium feature. However, Guardio notifies you about suspicious extensions before you install them regardless of which plan you’re on.

As with website blocking, you can view which extensions have been neutralized via the Guardio dashboard, under Extensions.

Unwanted notification cleanup

Guardio discerns between unwanted push notifications and what it calls legitimate ads. It then blocks what it predicts to be unwanted notifications. This means you may still see pop-up ads while browsing.

You can whitelist websites you trust so their pop-ups don’t get blocked by Guardio. This feature is only available on the Premium plan.

Identity monitoring

If your personal data becomes exposed in a data breach, you receive a security alert from Guardio (only on Premium). You can add up to 6 emails (which you’ll need to verify), and Guardio scans the web for any mentions of your email address in data leaks.

While testing this feature, Guardio successfully alerted me that my information was part of a data breach. It also let me know what kind of data was leaked, how many other users were affected, and some background on the data breach event.

Search hijacking correction

Guardio Premium scans your browser for hijackers, which change your browser settings and redirect you to unwanted (sometimes even harmful) websites.

Guardio promises it can detect any hijacking attempts on your browser. It also redirects you to your preferred search engine to ensure you don’t land on dangerous websites. From Guardio’s dashboard, you can select your preferred search engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo, or DuckDuckGo).

Email security

Guardio scans your email inbox for malicious and potentially harmful emails received in the last 90 days. Any dangerous emails are displayed on your dashboard, and you’re advised to avoid opening them and deleting them immediately to minimize risk of infection.

However, note that, at the time of research, only Gmail addresses were monitored.

Account protection

Guardio claims to protect your accounts from hackers wanting to steal your information. Currently, it provides protection for the following services: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter).

Text message filtering

You can extend Guardio’s security features to your phone by installing the mobile apps for Android and iOS. You can enable Guardio’s text message filter from the app’s settings. Once you do, the app scans incoming texts for any messages that pose a threat (e.g., if they contain a phishing link). You can find filtered texts in your junk folder.

Unfortunately, Guardio’s Text Message Filter feature is unavailable on Android.

How to install Guardio

Ready to protect your browser? Installing Guardio is easy and straightforward. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to the Guardio website and click the Start for Free button on the homepage.
2. Create an account by supplying your email address or signing up through Google.
3. (Optional) Provide your phone number to enjoy Guardio’s text message filtering.
4. Next, you’ll be asked to fill in your credit card details to start the 7-day free trial.
5. Follow the on-screen instructions to start your first browser scan.

If you want to skip signing up for the trial and use Guardio Free instead, do the following:

1. After signing up for an account, install the Guardio browser extension from your browser’s web store.
2. Once the extension is installed, navigate to your browser extensions and click on Guardio.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to start your first scan.

Guardio ease of use and setup

Since Guardio is a browser extension, it’s very easy to set up. You only need to install the browser extension from your browser’s web store, like the Google Chrome Web Store, for example. However, note that Guardio only works on Chromium browsers, including Brave, Opera, and Microsoft Edge.

After installing the extension, sign up for an account, follow the instructions on the website, and you’re good to go. You should then be directed to the dashboard, which has a minimalistic, modern, and clean interface that’s great for beginners.

I liked that the Guardio dashboard was easy to navigate, with its features neatly laid out in the left hand side of the screen. You can simply click on a feature to read more information about how it works. You can enable or disable specific features, too. There’s even a Getting Started video that explains Guardio’s options.

Mobile apps

Guardio has dedicated apps for Android and iOS. I tested both apps and found them to have fewer features than the desktop version. The iOS and Android apps are identical, minus the text message filtering, which is currently exclusive to iOS.

Guardio on Android

The Guardio Android app is well-designed and easy to use and install, making it a great choice for browser protection. However, similar to the desktop version, it can’t scan your local files for malware.

My favorite features on the Guardio Android app include Browsing Protection, Identity Monitoring, and Email Security.

Guardio on iOS

The iOS version of Guardio has one more feature than the Android app: Text Message Filtering. Other than that, it’s similar in appearance, functionality, and performance.

Just like on the Android version, Guardio’s iOS version also offers access to Browsing Protection, Identity Monitoring, and Email Security features.

Customer support

Guardio introduces two main support options: Help Center and a contact form. If you choose to seek help via the Help Center, you can type your specific questions into the allocated search bar, or you can browse guides by topic in the Knowledge base section.

24/7 live chat	❌ No
Phone support	❌ No
Email support	✅ Yes
Knowledge database	✅ Yes
Community support	❌ No

If you cannot find the information you’re looking for or you have a very specific problem, you can submit a question via a contact form. When using this form, you’re asked to share your name, topic, and, of course, email address – this is how the answer is sent back to you. When I tested this support option, I received an answer in just under an hour.

Unfortunately, you cannot contact Guardio’s agents instantly via live chat or by calling a dedicated support number. This could be an issue if you face a problem that requires an immediate solution.

Final verdict: is Guardio worth it?

Guardio is a relative newcomer in the antivirus industry, and it has a lot of catching up to do if it wants to compete with the best of the best. As it stands, I find that there are too few features in its Premium plan, which makes it difficult to justify the $9.99/month price tag. Other antivirus plans (like Norton 360, Malwarebytes, and Bitdefender) offer more robust packages at more competitive prices.

Still, Guardio is a viable pick if you have the budget to spare and if you’re worried about browser-based attacks like phishing scams. It never hurts to have more precautions, and Guardio has a modest offering in that regard.

Based on my testing, I recommend Guardio if you want a free tool that warns you about potentially harmful websites and if you work almost exclusively on a Chromium browser and want additional protection while browsing.

On the other hand, I don’t recommend Guardio if you’re looking for a tool that offers great value for your money. Many popular antivirus tools include password managers, VPNs, and other tools and can scan local files and programs. I also don’t think that Guardio is great if you regularly use external memory sources like memory cards and thumb drives.